findingnemoscar
Sep 23rd, 2004, 11:42 AM
Rented NHL 2005 (EA Sports) for X-box yesterday. Here is my review after playing it for about 6hrs compared to NHL2K5 (ESPN) for X-Box.
Gameplay:
I was extremely disappointed with NHL2005 after playing 3 games yesterday. The problems of their past was, IMO, was not rectified as promised: Mainly, too much unrealistic bodychecking and too much body contact.
I even turned the sliders down to zero which helped a bit but still made it impossible to go in close for breakaways and attempt and dekes. I liked the fact that an averted body check or un-even body check (i.e., Martin St.Louis trying to take out Todd Bertuzzi) made the player kind of skate off-balance on one leg (its hard to picture it but if you play the game, you'll know what i'm referring to) but after a while, that got boring. Maybe I sucked at this game yesterday but I could not deke around any player for maybe 3 steps without getting body-checked or bumped and losing the puck.
Also, the play on this felt vrey arcade like, not like ESPNs which I found to be much smoother.
Response to one-timers on NHL2005 were very delayed if possible at all.
I scored a few goals with slap shots and wrist shots (from bad angles) where the player obviously screened the goalie. I thought this was very good and to see a slap shot go top shelf where the goalie either did not react at all or reacted way too late was icing on the cake.
Breakaways were near impossible (please read about body contact) and dekeing the goalie didn't even happen for me. In 2k5 (ESPN), dekeing the goalie out and players for that matter, make the game so much more enjoyable. Don't get me wrong, I love hitting and all but when it becomes near impossible to manoever, it gets frustrating.
In NHL2005 (EA), theres a new strategy they implemented this year called "open ice" i believe. It follows along the NBA live where you can pre-control another player while controlling a player already. Sounds confusing? Maybe I don't have it 100% right but that's what it seemed like I was doing yesterday. I'm not a big fan of this right now but maybe when I get to learn it more, I'll use it more.
FRANCHISE MODE:
EA has always come out with better franchise modes and this get the edge in this one. I started out last night trading all the players on this years Team Canada roster to the Leafs. When I entered the franchise mode with this team, I noticed my profits this year would be negative since the team payroll alone was about $120 million :D. And I remembered that the franchise part of this was to make money while winning games...so I proceeded to trade every single one of my team canada players over 25/making more than 4mill/yr or in the final year of their contracts (except brodeur) to other teams in exchange for 19yr-22 old players with 3yr contracts and 1st rd draft picks. By the end of simulating the first year, I finished 4 in the league with players like spezza, gaborik, tommu ruttu, M.A. Fleury, brad stuart, michael ryder, coliacovo (sp?), stajan, boumeester (sp?), sedin twins, rick nash, tootoo, eric staahl. Needless to say, my entire team age averaged 22yrs of age. Not bad eh? And the team payroll was under 40mill (could have been less if i traded away brodeur and his giant contract:p). Also, I think I ended up with 18 of the top 25 draft picks including the first 10 :D. What I didn't like was that you could only sign players to no more than 3yrs...hmm..perhaps a forshadow of things to come in the new NHL? :)
Overall, NHL2K5 (ESPN) was much more smoother in gameplay IMO. The graphics in NHL2005 (EA) were better but again, they looked like arcade style to me (memories of those 3-3 hockey games..can't remember the name). Now if only NHL2K5 could improve their franchise mode or NHL2005 could improve their gameplay, we would have the perfect hockey game. :)
Gameplay:
I was extremely disappointed with NHL2005 after playing 3 games yesterday. The problems of their past was, IMO, was not rectified as promised: Mainly, too much unrealistic bodychecking and too much body contact.
I even turned the sliders down to zero which helped a bit but still made it impossible to go in close for breakaways and attempt and dekes. I liked the fact that an averted body check or un-even body check (i.e., Martin St.Louis trying to take out Todd Bertuzzi) made the player kind of skate off-balance on one leg (its hard to picture it but if you play the game, you'll know what i'm referring to) but after a while, that got boring. Maybe I sucked at this game yesterday but I could not deke around any player for maybe 3 steps without getting body-checked or bumped and losing the puck.
Also, the play on this felt vrey arcade like, not like ESPNs which I found to be much smoother.
Response to one-timers on NHL2005 were very delayed if possible at all.
I scored a few goals with slap shots and wrist shots (from bad angles) where the player obviously screened the goalie. I thought this was very good and to see a slap shot go top shelf where the goalie either did not react at all or reacted way too late was icing on the cake.
Breakaways were near impossible (please read about body contact) and dekeing the goalie didn't even happen for me. In 2k5 (ESPN), dekeing the goalie out and players for that matter, make the game so much more enjoyable. Don't get me wrong, I love hitting and all but when it becomes near impossible to manoever, it gets frustrating.
In NHL2005 (EA), theres a new strategy they implemented this year called "open ice" i believe. It follows along the NBA live where you can pre-control another player while controlling a player already. Sounds confusing? Maybe I don't have it 100% right but that's what it seemed like I was doing yesterday. I'm not a big fan of this right now but maybe when I get to learn it more, I'll use it more.
FRANCHISE MODE:
EA has always come out with better franchise modes and this get the edge in this one. I started out last night trading all the players on this years Team Canada roster to the Leafs. When I entered the franchise mode with this team, I noticed my profits this year would be negative since the team payroll alone was about $120 million :D. And I remembered that the franchise part of this was to make money while winning games...so I proceeded to trade every single one of my team canada players over 25/making more than 4mill/yr or in the final year of their contracts (except brodeur) to other teams in exchange for 19yr-22 old players with 3yr contracts and 1st rd draft picks. By the end of simulating the first year, I finished 4 in the league with players like spezza, gaborik, tommu ruttu, M.A. Fleury, brad stuart, michael ryder, coliacovo (sp?), stajan, boumeester (sp?), sedin twins, rick nash, tootoo, eric staahl. Needless to say, my entire team age averaged 22yrs of age. Not bad eh? And the team payroll was under 40mill (could have been less if i traded away brodeur and his giant contract:p). Also, I think I ended up with 18 of the top 25 draft picks including the first 10 :D. What I didn't like was that you could only sign players to no more than 3yrs...hmm..perhaps a forshadow of things to come in the new NHL? :)
Overall, NHL2K5 (ESPN) was much more smoother in gameplay IMO. The graphics in NHL2005 (EA) were better but again, they looked like arcade style to me (memories of those 3-3 hockey games..can't remember the name). Now if only NHL2K5 could improve their franchise mode or NHL2005 could improve their gameplay, we would have the perfect hockey game. :)